Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Cyberattack on Alamo Colleges is thwarted

The Alamo Colleges shut down several computer systems Wednesday to protect them from a cyberattack, officials said, mySA reports.

The community college district discovered the attack about 11 a.m. and as a precaution took several systems — including the student portal — offline temporarily, said Thomas Cleary, the vice chancellor for planning, performance and information systems.

It notified staff and students via email. The district has about 58,000 students in five colleges who began their fall semester Monday.…Read More

Higher education struggling to contain data breaches this summer

Universities across the country have reported constant cyberattacks from Chinese IP addresses.

College students and their professors may be away from campuses, but news of data breaches big and small continue to make headlines at colleges nationwide, including a few during the last week of July.

From simple accidents that exposed thousands of students to cyberattacks to a barrage of hacking that has plagued higher education over the past year, universities are grappling with new and evolving challenges in protecting vitally important information about their students, alums, and faculty members.

In case you missed it, here’s a rundown of some of the worst data breaches in higher education over the past year, some of which were so massive that the exact number of people affected by the breaches remains unknown.…Read More

Universities face a rising barrage of cyberattacks

America’s research universities, among the most open and robust centers of information exchange in the world, are increasingly coming under cyberattack, most of it thought to be from China, with millions of hacking attempts weekly, The New York Times reports. Campuses are being forced to tighten security, constrict their culture of openness and try to determine what has been stolen. University officials concede that some of the hacking attempts have succeeded. But they have declined to reveal specifics, other than those involving the theft of personal data like Social Security numbers. They acknowledge that they often do not learn of break-ins until much later, if ever, and that even after discovering the breaches they may not be able to tell what was taken. Universities and their professors are awarded thousands of patents each year, some with vast potential value, in fields as disparate as prescription drugs, computer chips, fuel cells, aircraft and medical devices.

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